USA's United Church of Christ General Synod passes resolution on violence against religious minorities in India

By A Representative

The Thirty-Fifth General Synod of the United Church of Christ (UCC), meeting in Kansas City, USA, has passed a resolution expressing concern over reports of rising violence and discrimination against religious minorities in India. The resolution, titled “A Response to Violence Against Religious Minorities in India,” reflects the denomination’s stated commitment to global human rights and religious freedom.

The resolution refers to incidents of violence and displacement affecting Christian, Muslim, and indigenous communities in India, citing developments since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. It also references reports of ethnic and religious conflict in Manipur, where tens of thousands have been displaced and religious structures destroyed.

The UCC document criticizes India's anti-conversion laws, inflammatory political rhetoric, and lack of legal accountability for attacks on minority communities. It urges the U.S. State Department to consider designating India a “country of particular concern” under international religious freedom guidelines. The resolution also encourages U.S. lawmakers to raise these concerns in diplomatic and legislative forums.

UCC members are being encouraged to engage with their congressional representatives about India’s legal and political developments, including the Citizenship Amendment Act and anti-conversion statutes at the state level.

This move aligns the UCC with other American Christian organizations, such as the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and the United Methodist Church, which have adopted similar positions in recent years.

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

Modi’s Israel visit strengthened Pakistan’s hand in US–Iran truce: Ex-Indian diplomat

By Jag Jivan M. K. Bhadrakumar , a career diplomat with three decades of service in postings across the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Turkey, has warned that the current truce in the US–Iran war is “fragile and ridden with contradictions.” Writing in his blog India Punchline , Bhadrakumar argues that while Pakistan has emerged as a surprising broker of dialogue, the durability of the ceasefire remains uncertain.

Search This Blog